Australian Women's Weekly (1933 - 1982), Wednesday 12 June 1968, page 33


Two COMPACT views on show business

2. Left to right: Stephen Agnew, Sandi Green-

tree, John Orcsik, and Margaret Anketell.

MARRIAGE COMES BEFORE A CAREER

"I'D rather push a broom and have a happy mar- riage than let our careers

come between us," said 26-year-old actor Sandy Har-

butt, pictured below with his wife, Helen Morse.

"We've seen so many show-business marriages fail that we're very conscious of

the risks involved. If we

found our marriage was fail-

ing, we'd give up our careers immediately."

He smiled at his pretty wife and added, "In our work we get numerous offers to travel. If they're for any great length of time we turn

them down. A marriage

can't possibly last if both partners are constantly apart."

Sandy and Helen met while starring in "A Taste of Honey" on a week's tour to Newcastle. When they returned, Helen had to go on another tour for six

weeks, but before she left

Sandy popped the question.

The six weeks was their

testing period and on Helen's return they were married.

After only 15 months of marriage, Sandy and Helen have discovered that actor and actress plus marriage can equal problems.

If both are acting on stage at night (usually in different plays and at opposite ends of town), they consider themselves lucky. They have the day together,

But if one or both are also

doing television work during the day, they do not see each

other until one o'clock in the morning.

The only time they like to be apart is when there are new scripts to be learnt.

Helen stays in one room and Sandy goes off to another. He likes to learn his lines to a background of

shrieking tape-recorded

music.

During the past five years Sandy has played in eight productions with the Ensemble Theatre, North Sydney, and in numerous television episodes.

His ambition is to be a writer and producer. But he thinks that by working

in the business first he

can become thoroughly acquainted with all its aspects and techniques.

Helen, 21, has been acting since she left school five years ago. Her last play was "Terror Australis" at the Old Tote Theatre, Kensington.

Both insist that the other is the better actor. This loyalty even stretches to cooking.

"Helen is the most

fabulous cook—she conjures up incredible Continental cuisine with lashings of garlic, which must be terrible when we go on stage breath-ing all over everyone," said Sandy.

"And you cook the best scrambled eggs," returned

Helen.

Sandy and Helen both want the same things. And they don't mind working hard to get them.